Date: October 1–2, 2026 Location: Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin, Germany Admission: Free (in-person)

The Data Donation Symposium 2026 brings together applied researchers, methodologists, legal and ethical experts, research engineers, and software developers with an interest in using digital trace data for scientific research purposes.

Visit the symposium website for full details.

Call for Abstracts

Researchers are invited to submit abstracts exploring data donation as a research methodology. Topics of interest include:

Collection, Ethics & Infrastructure

  • Ensuring meaningful informed consent when soliciting thousands of data points
  • Mitigating self-selection bias and low participation rates
  • Reducing friction in donation workflows through design solutions
  • Understanding regulatory impacts (Digital Markets Act, Portability APIs)

Methodological Innovations

  • Adapting sequence analysis, process mining, and event logging techniques
  • Exploring qualitative and mixed-method approaches
  • Linking donations with external data sources (surveys, metadata)

Submission requirements: PDF, anonymized for double-blind review, maximum 500 words including references. One first-author submission per person.

View the full call for abstracts — contact lion.wedel@weizenbaum-institut.de with questions.

Important Dates

   
Abstract submission deadline April 30, 2026
Notification of acceptance July 31, 2026
Symposium October 1–2, 2026

Previous Symposia

This event is funded by PDI-SSH and ODISSEI.